About ten years ago, I attended The Call D.C. On the National Mall, among tens of thousands of Believers, we prayed for God to bring a revival. As we prayed and cried out for God, I remember feeling so confused. “How do I pray for revival? How do I pray for God’s Spirit to come down and sweep through our Nation and the hearts of our lawmakers? Where is God, and how to I convince Him to come here?”
These are not only questions we ask when we’re praying for revival; these are questions that float in our minds anytime we pray. Throughout these Reflections on Intimacy with God, we’ve talked about how you picture God in your prayer life, but let’s talk about where you picture God. This is extremely important. When you’re praying, where is God? Don’t give me the theological answer. Give me what you’re sensing or seeing. If you don’t know, close your eyes right now and pray, and as you pray, think about the location where you’re envisioning or sensing God.
For many people, God is distant. He’s in heaven, looking down, listening to us. Our prayers have to travel a long way. In fact, I think sometimes we feel like we have to ask a little harder to give it that extra push to get it to God’s desk. It’s sort of like that exclamation point we put on our emails to mark it “urgent.”
This even comes out in the way we talk, pray, or sing. How about that Newsboys song – “As we lift up our hands, will you meet us here? As we call on your Name, will you meet us here?” So, lifting up our hands or calling on His Name might bring Him to where we are? How high do we have to stretch, or how loud do we have to yell? Have you ever prayed, “God, we invite you here to this place?”
I grew up with the idea of the sanctuary. It’s the place you go to in order to worship God. Most people associate sanctuary with the church building where the worship service occurs. Whenever I ran inside our church, an adult would stop me and say, “You’re in God’s house… the sanctuary. There’s no running or horse playing in here.” Were they right? Was I running on hallowed ground, and was it God’s perpetual presence there in the sanctuary what made it holy?
Let me share with you a different idea (and no this isn’t an excuse to run inside the church building). We are told on a number of occasions that our bodies are the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19; 2 Timothy 1:14). In other words, God dwells within us. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in a sermon on Yom Kippur, the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle and later the Temple was the most haunted and sacred place in the world because God met with the High Priest on top of the Mercy Seat. Following the crucifixion where the Temple Curtain tore from top to bottom, Paul tells us that God dwells inside the hearts of believers. The profound implication of that verse is that you, as a believer filled with the Holy Ghost, are the most haunted and sacred place in the world because God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, dwells within you.
In a nutshell, God is here. You don’t need to invite God into a place or a time of worship, as though it’s “now time to do something spiritual.” The invitation is for you and for me. God invites us – our entire being – not into just a spiritual experience but a spiritual life. I wonder if all those times I said, “God, I invite you here,” has God replied, “actually, I’ve been here the whole time inviting you.”
Entering into the presence of God isn’t so much a place we go physically as it is mentally. When we realize that we’re in the presence of God, something within us changes. Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Right now, you are in the amazing presence of God. Say it. “I am in the amazing presence of God.” Don’t use the past tenses; don’t use the future tenses. Don’t say, “Last week I had an amazing encounter with God,” or “At that place I met with God” or “This Sunday, I’m looking forward to meeting with God at church.” Rather, right here, right now, you are with God, and God is within you.
One final thought as we close. When Moses was first introduced to God at the burning bush, God told him His Name – I AM. Right here, right now, you are with I AM. The question is not: where is God? The question is: where are you?